1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique for inspecting a plurality of ejection parts in a liquid ejection device.
2. Background Technology
An inkjet printer as one example of a liquid ejection device includes a plurality of ejection parts for ejecting ink, and within the ejection parts, ink is stored in cavities communicated with nozzles, and ink is ejected from the nozzles by the driving of drive elements provided to the cavities. In the ejection part of such a liquid ejection device, when air bubbles get mixed in the ink in the cavities or when the ink in the cavities thickens, there is a risk of the nozzles becoming clogged and the ink not being ejected from the nozzles satisfactorily.
In the past, there has been proposed a technique for inspecting the clogging of the nozzles in the ejection parts on the basis of residual vibration remaining in the ink in the cavities due to the driving of the drive elements (see Patent Citations 1 through 3, for example). During inspection based on such residual vibration, when the plurality of ejection parts is inspected, there is variation in the residual vibration characteristics among the ejection parts as a result of positional relationship, manufacturing errors, and the like, and a determination reference of inspection based on residual vibration is therefore set in a range which allows variation in the residual vibration characteristics.
Japanese Patent Application Publication Nos. 2005-289048 (Patent Citation 1), 2005-305992 (Patent Citation 2) and 2006-306077 (Patent Citation 3) are examples of the related art.